


The Halfling

by KeeLimeArt



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Beauty and the Beast Elements, Daemon half looks like a chocobo, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Half Daemon Prompto, Halfling!Prompto, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mild Language, Noct Never Met Prompto, Promptis - Freeform, Regis is only looking out for Noct, overbearing father
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2018-09-22 02:51:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9579218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeeLimeArt/pseuds/KeeLimeArt
Summary: Wanted- Any and all escaped Imperial experiments.-----Halflings are MT experiments that never fully developed, leaving them part daemon, part human, and pieces of machine. They are said to be mindless, savage creatures who wouldn't think twice about killing you.This is the same creature that Prompto Argentum happened to be. For his entire life, he'd been on the run, and after one rainy day, he would have sworn that his life would have come to an end.-----Then along comes a prince who takes pity on the beast he found in the alley. It's a race against the empire and his home, as it will cost both their lives if they are caught.





	1. Chapter 1

WANTED:  
Any and all escaped Imperial experiments.  
-Ordered under the reign of King Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII-

There could be no doubt about it. Though the kingdom might have known about the experiments for a long time, they didn’t want to address the issue. As far as they were concerned, what they couldn’t see couldn’t hurt them. Now with tens or hundreds of them roaming the streets and wreaking havoc, there was little that they could do. 

The specifics of the process were still unknown, but from what the king’s forces could find, the creation of the magitek warriors were by no means natural. Some dark magic was clearly inlaid with them. The king’s more trusted advisors would boil it all down to daemons, but none of that seemed to add up. How could the empire possibly create a metal, humanoid soldier through the use of daemons?

That was just the question that they needed to ask.

However, it weren’t the soldiers themselves that were causing so much trouble for the kingdom. Of course, with every process, there is a trial and error phase, and every so often, a mistake will be made, tarnishing the results. If it were true that they were working with daemons, then there would be countless opportunities for mistakes. 

The result? Bounties of strange, misshapen beasts as wild as animals. The things cared for nothing, harmed whatever they came across, and felt no remorse. If they found you outside of your home, they would not hesitate to track and kill you. If they were powerful enough to escape the high security of Imperial labs, just imagine what would happen if they got their hands on a citizen. This is the propaganda that was put in effect to stall the magitek construction. 

Thus, an order was made to surrender any of the failed experiments over to King Regis, and a curfew of six o’clock was enacted over his people. It was an act that lasted over twenty years, and these ‘Halfbreeds’ were only growing in numbers.  
\-----  
Great. Just fantastic.

The one day that Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum didn’t take protection with him also happened to be the one day that it decided to rain. The clouds were heavy and dark, threatening to spill their contents at any given moment. 

The young boy was traveling by foot from school, not such a common feat. Since it was insisted that he shared an apartment with Ignis Scientia, it became an everyday thing. Though the rooms were nothing close to the palace, the prince didn’t seem to mind it. Yes, it was a mess more than half the time while he was there, mostly on his accord, but in a way, he enjoyed it. It felt much more like home than the pristine, constantly sanitized rooms that he would dwell in with the king. 

At least the apartment is closer than the palace, Noct would keep reminding himself. As he lazily trotted along the sidewalk, he suddenly felt a drop of water fall on his forehead. Taken by momentary surprise, Noct stopped in his tracks and looked up in the sky. A few droplets teasingly made their way down to the earth, but the prince knew better than to trust a light sprinkle. Without a moment’s hesitation the rain turned into a downpour. 

“Damn the weather here!” Noct swore underneath his breath. Some thunder rumbled in the distance, causing him to grunt in agitation. The prince pulled the jacket over his head to use as a shield. Then, he broke into a run, trying to get to the apartment as fast as possible. Only a few more blocks and he’d be home free. 

Water was not the only thing washing up over the streets. Underneath Noct’s feet, a few blotched of red liquid were scattered about. Though the water was slowly cleaning the streets and ridding the concrete of the unsightly image, the substance was unmistakable. There was a distinct trail of blood, and it only grew thicker as it went along.

Noctis slowed down for a moment, if only in curiosity. It took the young prince only a few seconds to realize what he was looking at. Someone was injured; that much was obvious. Perhaps if he hurried, he could find who-

Something large and heavy fell onto the ground, originating from the alleyway. An unusually high pitched shriek of pain followed, but it was like nothing Noct had ever heard before. Instead of coming from one distinct source, it sounded as though a combination of creatures were causing it. It made him question whether or not the thing that was injured was a person. Though there were definitely undertones of human within it, and that’s exactly what made the prince spring into action. 

Just as Noct rounded the corner, he caught the silhouette of a small person collapsing to the ground. Whoever it was, they wore a dark coat about four sizes too big for them, so much in a way that it practically swallowed the person it was covering. A few trash cans lay discarded on their sizes, explaining where the loud crash came from. Most startling though, was the heavy amounts of blood dripping from the figure.

“Hey, sir! Do you need my help?” Noctis called as he ran down the alley.

The figure jerked a head up when they realized that they were not alone. Instead of accepting help from the prince, they immediately began to cower away in fear. The coat they were wearing was suddenly drawn up to their face, covering it from view. 

When Noctis got close enough, he bent down on his knees and assessed the damage, realizing that it looked much more terrible up close. Even with the heavy coat on, he could tell that the stranger had been cut through his ribs, which were profusely bleeding. It looked as though it was getting worse by the second. 

Noct grumbled to himself, “Oh, man that looks pretty bad. I’m- I’m just going to call somebody for help.”

“No!” shrieked the injured stranger. He lashed out for the first time, gripping the prince by the wrists and lightly digging his nails into the skin.

There was a moment of silence in which neither of the boys spoke. A deafening silence took over the area, with the mood turning from urgent to chilling in less than a second. There was no sound that came but rain from above that was crashing to the ground. 

“Oh… Oh gods…” Noct muttered as he realize what he was looking at. 

Though he had never seen one of them in real life, Noctis was filled in with all the known details on the Halfbreeds. If he could apply the term to anybody or anything, the creature in front of him would make an excellent example. They were primarily human, that much was obvious. Their frame was humanoid enough to wear our clothing, and perched at the top was none other than a person’s face. Their eyes were a striking blue color with mismatched dilation in the pupils, with the skin around one of the eyes made it look like half of his face was melting like candlewax.

The hair on the top of their head was a yellowing blonde. However, at some point, the hairline faded into the back of the head and was instead replaced with intricately woven feathers. The same could be said about various areas of the body that Noct was able to see. Random patches of the feathers were splattered over the figure’s body like paint on a canvas. Though he was deathly thin, certain areas in the stranger’s shirt and pants were puffed out where the variously sized spots forced it upwards. 

The stranger’s expression soon turned to match Noct’s own, and he slowly let go of the prince’s wrist. He pulled the coat tighter to himself to hide his body, but the movement upset his injury, causing a scorching pain to split from the opening. He lurched forward only to fall flat onto the ground. Noct reached out a hand to him, but hesitated to touch him. 

The look in the figure’s eyes was one filled with fear and uncertainty. If they were able to express emotion, then it was definitely registering what was going on. In other words, it was thinking, and Halflings weren’t supposed to be able to think.

“Shh, I’m not going to hurt you,” the prince calmly cooed. “If you keep moving like that you’re going to hurt yourself. Let me help you. I’ll take you somewhere close and we can get that patched up, alright?” It partially looked like a human, and hasn’t tried to kill him yet. Noct agreed that that was a good reason to not let a passerby die out in the open.

The stranger looked timidly up at the prince, debating on whether or not he could trust him. Though, he had little choice in the situation. The world was spinning like a top for him, and gradually, it faded into darkness.  
\-----  
Ignis wasn’t home, and to be frank, that was the best news that Noct had received that day. Turns out that an emergency meeting was called that evening, and it lasted much longer than they expected. By the time everything was wrapped up, curfew had already been called. The grown man called ahead of time to inform the prince of this event, which would most likely occur.

It didn’t really matter that much to Noct. Normally, that only meant that he would spend the night alone with some cup noodles for dinner. All in all, it really wasn’t that bad, but it was a vital piece to making his plan work. 

Carrying an almost full grown man up a few flights of stairs was one thing, but when that almost full grown man is a Halfling with a crooked back and, from what he felt, metal frames to support a few limbs, that was another deal entirely. However, after fifteen minutes, Noct managed to get both of them locked inside the apartment, with the stranger on top of Ignis’s bed. 

During the whole duration trip, Noct’s guest was unconscious, and as time went on, it only caused him more concern, more so than the fact that Ignis was going to kill him when he got home. He ripped the coat and shirt off of the other boy to get to the sliced flesh underneath. His appearance took Noct slightly off guard at first, but he quickly overcame it. Just as he suspected, the patches of feathers continued underneath, but the way they were positioned looked quite painful. Regardless, Noct pressed on, studying the cut in his side.

The injury ran deeper than he originally thought, coming close to the bone underneath. Noct’s heart sank deep into his stomach when he realized that it was going to need stitches.

He knew how to sew, didn’t he? The question caused him to rack his brain for the memory. If he didn’t, then would have been as good a time as any. All he needed was a needle and thread. Luckily, Ignis was an active sewer himself, and Noct didn’t have to go very far for the supplies. Unfortunately, he stopped as soon as his fingers ran across the thread. If he learned anything from fishing from his father, it was the strength of lines. Just by brushing a finger on it, he could tell that the string would snap as soon as he started, but what else would he be able to use?

What about fishing line?

The genius idea caused Noctis to spring to his feet and run to his room to gather a bit of his fishing line. Surely he could spare some in a life or death situation. The prince dived into the sea of clutter to find his target, and surprisingly, he found it with ease. Even clutter needed some form of organization. Taking some of the scissors that he found in the sewing kit, he cut off a strand the size of his arm’s length. After a quick nod of satisfaction, he whipped around to go back to Ignis’s room.

“Wh-What are you doing?” the stranger weakly asked when the prince returned. His breathing became raspy and short like he couldn’t get enough air. The short question alone caused the boy to cringe and clutch his side. He might had fully regained consciousness, but the stranger was still in extreme pain. To make matters worse, his face had turned as white as the sheets underneath him used to be. 

Despite the new circumstances, Noct sat on his knees next to the bed and threaded the needle the best he could. When he finished, he quickly moved back up to the stranger to begin the makeshift operation.

“I’m not going to lie. This is going to hurt like hell. Are you ready?” Noct both informed and wondered.

“No,” the stranger whimpered. 

“One, two… What’s your name?” the prince suddenly asked in the middle of his countdown.

Bemused, the boy answered, “My name? It’s Prompt-“

“THREE!” Noct half shouted. 

At least now the prince was sure that it was the stranger who made that terrible shriek in the alley. For the second time that night, it came ringing into his ears.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the aftermath of the makeshift operation.  
> And it's time for our roommate to return home.

For once, there was silence.

Both of the young men laid in the room, feeling more exhausted than they had ever been. While the newcomer slept peacefully, more or less, Noctis sat on his knees at the edge of the bed with his head buried into his arms.

It had been far from an easy process. Because the stranger moved around so much, and because it was Noct’s first time with a needle, there were several instances where the prince missed his mark. It didn’t help that his ears were practically bleeding from the volume of the other boy’s screams. Eventually, however, they died down as he drifted off to unconsciousness once more. What should have only taken a few seconds turned into a half hour nightmare.

Noct lifted his head to peer out at his hands. They were nothing short of a grizzly mess, stained red and hurting. After the many times that he accidentally pricked himself instead of his subject, he wasn’t sure whose blood he had on him. Either way, it was going to have to be cleaned off.

With a groan and a crack from his knees, Noct stood to walk over to the sink in the adjacent bathroom. The prince could feel his eyelids drooping as the warm water ran over his hands. Disgustingly enough, it wasn’t as warm as the goo already covering him. He tried not to dwell on that fact too much. 

Noct shook his head in an attempt to stay awake, but it only managed to help his eyes stay open for a couple more seconds. The young prince had been completely drained from the experience and would like nothing more than to lie down and forget everything. He realized that he probably dug himself into a deep grave by protecting the stranger, but for some reason, he couldn’t resist. It was like it was more human than it appeared.

With a handful of cold water in his freshly cleaned hands, Noct slashed himself before returning to the room. He reclaimed his position on the side of the bed, simply sitting there to study the thing in front of him.

Well, ‘more human than it appeared’ wasn’t saying much, even though his human features made him look like a boy about Noct’s age. Just as Noct suspected as he was carrying him, his guest’s back was curved into a distinct ‘S’ shape with a brace-like mechanism made from steel and leather to suspend it. His hands were scarily bony, a suiting match to the rest of his figure. The tips of them were oddly shaped with crooked, short claws replacing his fingernails.

Looking down, Noct realized that something was wrong with the stranger’s leg as well. Instead of a full, fleshy, feathery appendage to match the rest, it was simply gone. In its place was a prosthetic piece that was made from the same materials as his back brace. Not only that, but it was identical to the legs from the pictures of Magitek soldiers that he had seen. It made the prince think that this one was half baked when they took him out of the oven. 

For the first time, he could understand why they were called Halflings. It- He wasn’t a daemon, for he wouldn’t have been wandering around during the day. Human? Close, but not quite, and it still was not a full-fledged Magitek soldier. They weren’t called Halflings because they were half of one thing. Rather, they were at a state in between worlds without actually belonging to any of them.

These curious revelations kept Noct up until his head eventually dropped into the sheets and he fell into a dreamless slumber. Hours later, when he woke, dawn had still not broken. The prince woke up tired and groggy as well as having discovered that his neck was stiff. For a couple minutes, he had completely forgotten what had happened the night before and looked around Ignis’s room, a little confused. When his eyes landed on the oddly shaped figure on the bed, everything came crashing back to him like a sack of bricks. 

A set of cool blue eyes were gently staring at him in curiosity. They blinked and looked away as soon as the prince’s own reached out to meet them. 

“G’ Morning?” Noct grumbled through the sheets.

His guest took a short intake of breath as he spoke, and his head snapped over to look at him once more. “Good m-morning,” he stuttered in reply. His hands began to shake at his sides in anxiety.

“Hey, whoa, calm down,” Noct motioned to him as he took to his feet. “Relax, you’re safe here. Try not to get too excited or move a lot. I’m not too sure how well I stitched you together yet.”

“Stitch me?” the stranger murmured in confusion. He looked down at his side where the wiring ran through him. He gingerly placed a finger along the path, jerking back as a sharp pain ebbed its way into him. After a pause, he took his hand and traced along the outside, suddenly becoming preoccupied with his thoughts.

“I don’t think that I caught your name after what was going on last night,” the prince remarked. Noct took to one of the walls, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned against it.

The boy on the bed honestly had to sit and think about his own name for a moment. “Prompto,” he finally answered. “I think that’s what they called me.”

“You think?” Noct mused.

“Yes,” Prompto confirmed with a nod of his head. “The first thing I remember are the- doctors. They said ‘get out of here, Prompto’, and next thing I know, I never see them again.”

Prompto had been created at a young age in the lab, which was one of the leading factors in his ‘malfunction’. The scientists were horrified at what they created, hardly able to look at it. They knew that they had to discard him quickly before the word got out about him. Thus, according to one of their technicians, they had to get him out of there ‘pronto’. 

Noct quickly caught on to what the words actually meant, but decided that it was best not to elaborate with the confused Halfling. 

“Are you going to throw me out now, too?” Prompto asked him in an innocent tone. His ponderings snapped Noct out of his thoughts as the boy looked over to him.

“What?” he asked, half paying attention. “No, of course not. You can’t get around anywhere while you’re stitched up like that. Unless, of course, you want to tear open your side again.” He was met with silence. “Right. That’s what I thought. Now, I’ll be back in a second. I’m going to grab something to eat.” While he was at it, he might as well have gotten something for Prompto, too. On his way to the kitchen, he noted that the sun was peeping over the horizon already. At least it was Saturday. 

Noct was never really a strong cook, and anybody who had experienced his food before wouldn’t hesitate to tell you that. The prince wouldn’t even think about cooking a full course breakfast for two that morning, let alone any morning. For the moment, some cup noodles or something would have to do.

“What in the world?” a newcomer’s voice questioned as they stepped through the door. “Noct!”

The prince nearly dropped his food when he heard the person, and his blood quickly ran cold. He had almost completely forgotten that Ignis would be coming home.

“Noct, I have had it up to here with you,” the man scolded as he stormed down the hall. “These messes are unacceptable. You’re going to have to start learning to pick up after yourself before- What is this?” Just before he was going to launch into a full rant about the prince’s tidiness, Ignis stepped in something down the hall. Noct never bothered to clean up after carrying Prompto into the apartment. Ignis had to stare at the trail for a moment before he reached out to the doorknob. 

“No, wait, Ignis!” Noct exclaimed, running over to block the door. His sudden outburst only caused Ignis to become more suspicious at him, and he wasted no time in opening the door to his own room. “DON’T!”

The opening door was met with a cry of surprise and a clumsy Prompto rolling out of the bed and shuffling underneath the skirt to get away. Ignis nearly leapt out of his skin, jumping back a foot, and giving Noct the opportunity to slam it shut.

“What the hell have you brought in this house?” Ignis loudly demanded. It wasn’t uncommon for a younger Noct to come home with a strange thing trailing his feet, but this was crossing a line. 

“Don’t touch him! He doesn’t mean any harm!” the prince tried to defend his guest.

“Him? Noct, if that is what I think it is, we need to turn it over to your father immediately! What are you doing with a Halfling?” the man continued.

“It’s not what it looks like! I found him injured in an alleyway, and-“ he began.

“Injured?” Ignis cut him off. “So it’s been weakened? All the more reason to take it while it’s vulnerable. It can’t hurt anyone while it’s like that.” He made a move to shove past Noct and barge back into the room once again.

Prompto stood in one of the corners, frightened out of his wits. He made a short whimpering noise as the light rushed in, and Ignis headed straight for him. Or, he would have, if Noct didn’t thrust himself forward to act as a human shield in front of Prompto. The little Halfling raised his hands high in the air, gripping onto his skull as he prepared for a blow. 

“Noct. Get out of the way before it hurts you,” Ignis slowly ordered him. He reached into his pocket to pull out a small, defensive weapon.

“If you want to get to him, you’ll have to go through me,” the prince growled.

“Listen to me. This beast has poisoned you or something of the like. You’re not thinking straight. This thing is not your friend. It wants to kill you!” the man tried to pull sense out of the situation.

“You’re wrong! If HE wanted to kill me, then HE would have done it already,” was Noct’s retort. “Listen to me, Ignis. He isn’t what you think he is. He’s not some mindless, killing machine. I’ve talked to him, and-“

“Let me see him,” Ignis shortly demanded. “Stand aside, and let me see him.”

Noct took a step forward and pointed an accusing finger at Ignis. “If you lay a finger on him, I’ll kill you,” he warned.

Ignis simply scoffed and waved the prince’s hand aside, pushing past him. “You can count on it,” he muttered in reply. 

Prompto was crouched down low to the floor, the tears brimming at his eyes from both panic and pain. Ignis forcefully grabbed him by the jaw and forced the Halfling to look him direct in the eyes as the man scanned him for a moment. 

“Say something,” Ignis ordered. Prompto’s speech faltered for a moment, unsure of what to do. This only caused the man to press harder. “Say something now, because your life is depending on it.”

“I’ll say anything! I’ll say anything you want!” Prompto half yelled. Ignis released him, letting the boy fall to the floor before he stood up. 

“Noct, what have you done?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a very intense chapter.  
> Requests. Still open.  
> Comments are the most appreciated thing. I always base a fiction's success based on its comments, so please, help keep this one fuelled.  
> 


	3. Chapter 3

“Did you hear what happened to Gildroy’s son yesterday?” a gossip sharply exclaimed. 

Regardless of the surprise that Ignis walked in on the day before, he was determined to go to work and carry on as usual. There was no room for them to suddenly become suspicious by secluding themselves. Besides, Ignis had a duty to uphold. For the moment, he was pacing down the hallway, hurrying to begin his daily duties when he caught a few snippets of conversation.

“Yes! Yes I did!” squeaked a woman’s voice. “It was absolutely dreadful, from what I’ve heard! Could you imagine getting jumped by one of those Magitek halflings in the middle of the afternoon?”

Typically, Ignis wouldn’t have dreamed of eavesdropping on somebody’d idle chatter. However, there was one remark in this one that made him slow down and stop to listen in. 

“I know, I know. I heard that he’s going to be in the hospital for weeks, the poor boy. He’s one of the luckier ones, you know, but it still gives me chills, just thinking about it. I knew that those things were supposed to be- what, part animal or something?” the first voice wondered. 

“Daemon. According to his majesty, they’re forged from daemons,” the lady corrected the other worker. 

“Right. Well, apparently they found some claw marks on the boy and in the area. Not only that, but feathers, too. Can you believe it? Big, bright yellow ones like on the traditional chocobos,” he gave a loud shivering sound. “I wouldn’t want to touch it.”

“Let alone see it. I don’t see why it’s taking so long for the guard to get rid of all of these creatures. They can’t be that difficult to find and exterminate, can they?” the woman hatefully asked. 

“His majesty’s forces are doing everything they can,” Ignis butted in, interrupting the conversation by surprise. He walked over into the room, only to find two of the more basic and common servants gathering garments to wash. 

“And if I were you, I would try to hold your tongue when you’re under his roof, or else you might have to seek employment where. You never know who might be listening in on you.”

The two servants nearly jumped out of their skin when they heard Ignis. Immediately they whipped around to face him and offer the man with the pompadour a small bow of respect. 

“Mister Scientia!” the lady servant exclaimed. “We did not see you there. Please, excuse us, sir. We were merely exchanging a harmless chat, nothing else. We swear by it, sir. We were just getting back to our work.”

“Well, I’ll let you slide by this time,” Ignis agreed to that, acting as though it were something that he didn’t do very often. “But please, heed my warning. Watch what you say around here, especially with the open doors.” With that, he walked off, soon pushing the experience well into the back of his mind. However, their words still lingered and echoed. If Prompto indeed hurt this boy, then he had technically committed a crime against Insomnia. Well, that is, if you don’t count his entire existence as being a crime. Nevertheless, it was going to prove to be more and more difficult to keep this secret contained if every royal servant bone in his body was telling him to turn the Magitek Halfling in. 

For now, however, he was just going to have to turn the other cheek, and hope that whatever was happening back at the apartment, Noctis had it under control.  
\-----  
Saturdays were normally the best day of the week, regardless of who you are. 

For Noctis, he was just lucky that it was the weekend in the first place. Prompto was healing at an alarmingly fast rate, and Noct soon realized that he was filled with bountiful energy that could keep him going for miles without end. If he hadn’t been there to keep the Halfling under control, he was convinced that he would have hurt himself if he had been at school.

“Prompto, Promto please,” Noct pleaded with him. At the moment, Prompto was quickly running about and exploring every nook and cranny that the rooms had to offer. “You’re got to stay undercover while you’re here, alright? And I just stitched you up last night. You could still open them up, very easily.”

“Don’t worry!” Prompto cheerfully informed Noct as he perched himself low onto one of the kitchen counters. His metal leg, it would seem, had a hard time bending. Instead of crouching low with the other one, it simply hung limply over the tabletop. “Really, I’ve had some pretty bad scratched in my life. All of them have mostly cleared up in a day or two, then I’m fine!”

“Yeah, well, I’m sure that you’ve never had to have stiches before, have you?” Noctis countered. 

Upon thinking about this, Prompto frowned and slowly began to lower himself from his place. He did seem a little unbalanced at first, but gradually regained his stance, even if the curve in his back drastically kept him uneven. 

“No, no I haven’t,” he grumbled in a confession. The Halfling crossed his arms for a moment, either in disappointment or embarrassment. 

At this sight, Noct was forced to loosen up a little bit more than he had been. “Hey, just- take it easy for a little while, alright?” he tried to reason with him. “Until then- ah, I’m sure that you’re hungry, right? Well, I might not be as good as Ignis is with these things. Trust me, he’s actually the best pastry chef in the kingdom, even though he’s not professional, but I could probably make something. Cereal at the least. I guess that I could always try toast.” At this thought, he walked over to the bread box to extract one of the loaves. 

“Toast?” Prompto curiously pondered aloud. “I think that I’ve heard of that before.”

“I would hope that you have,” Noctis chuckled in response. “It’s just cooked bread, nothing too special, really.”

“What?! You’re going to start a fire in the middle of the room?!” Prompto, panicked, asked. The Halfling practically hit the deck for cover and hid himself behind a panel in the island counter. 

Noct quickly shook his head and gestured his hands to deny that accusation. “No, no, no, nothing like that. We’ve got this special box that we call a toaster, and all you have to do is pop the toast in, push the button down, and wait until it pops back up. The box cooks it from the inside, so you don’t have to start a fire or anything.” Noct pat the toaster to show Prompto what exactly it was that he was talking about. 

“The box is magic?” 

“No, it’s not. It just runs on electricity, and the box makes enough heat to start cooking the bread. An oven will do the same thing, but it’s used more for larger recipies,” Noctis added. 

“Oh…” Prompto muttered, feeling a little disappointed. 

“Even if it isn’t magic, would you like some toast?” the prince inquired, already taking a couple of slices out of the bag.

“Yes, please!”  
\-----  
“Ignis Scientia?” asked a deep, brisk voice. 

Ignis had to suppress a groan of annoyance. It would seem that he would not be able to get nay work done that day. Honestly, he couldn’t say that he was surprised. Things around the palace always got stirred up and crazy if somebody official even whispered the word “Halfling”. Such was the life that he was living, he supposed. 

Turning around, he tried to gently shoo away the person coming to pick at him. “I’m sorry but I’m very bu-“ It was at that moment that he had to look up in order to meet the eyes of his addressor. “Oh, Gladio.” Any irritancy that he felt from before was automatically wiped clean from his plate. 

The taller, muscular man stood there for a second longer, acting and feeling awkward as the silence was stretched out. If anything else, he even appeared to be a little nervous about coming there. 

“I’m guessing that you’ve heard about the Halfling situation?” he presumed. “The one that nobody’s been able to keep quiet about? That boy that ended up in the hospital?”

“Yes, I’m well aware of that,” Ignis cut him off for a second. “Get to the point? What did you come to me for? I’m sure that it wasn’t to continue spreading the gossip. After all, you and the rest of the guard try to keep everything under wraps as much as possible. 

Gladio grunted as that fact was pointed out. “The king wants to see you,” he bluntly stated, trying to cut to the chase.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it's been a while, but the important thing is that The Halfling is BACK!  
> Please, guys, comments fuel the fictions.


	4. *Temp Author's Note

~It's been over a year since the initial publication of The Halfling! Let's celebrate!~

What's Going On Now:

As of last year, I've been working on my first full length novel, and I can safely say that it should be finished (editing and all) before the end of fall. That's why all my stories have been on hiatus. Now, I am trying to build up an author's platform to reach as many as I can for this novel. These fanfictions. And anything that happens in the future.

What That Means:

I'd love to have your support on here, Deviant Art (as KeeLimeArt), and/or Tumblr (as KeeLimeArt). With enough support, I'll happily take time out of my novel to bring you more FFXV fanfiction (including more of The Halfling), fan art, and more! However- I can't do any of these things if nobody cares enough for them! Comment, follow, etc. I'm not asking for much. Just enough to let me know you're still hanging on!

Bonus:

I'm looking to round up some people for a collaborative story edit crew. Interested?

Thanks!  
-TobittiusRiggs

**Author's Note:**

> Always taking story requests. Although this one is original, I really don't mind anybody coming up to me with ideas for new stories.  
> And please, comments help drive these. The more the merrier. If I know that people like it, I'll gladly get the chapters to you faster.


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